Black Duck Software, the leading global provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source software, today announced it has acquired The Olliance Group, a privately-held independent open source business and strategy consulting firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Andrew Aitken, Founder of the Olliance Group, and Greg Olsen, Senior Partner, will join Black Duck. Olliance Group will be managed as a wholly owned and independent business within Black Duck Software. Aitken will serve as General Manager of the Olliance Group business unit, and also will continue to independently organize and manage the Open Source Think Tank, the industry’s premier event at which thought leaders from around the world gather to discuss the future of commercial open source.
The acquisition, Black Duck’s fourth and its third in a matter of months, expands the company’s offerings to include open source business and strategy consulting services to help enterprise IT clients capitalize on the significant strategic, technological, and financial benefits of open source software. Black Duck acquisitions include Koders.com, a free open source code search engine (2008) Ohloh.net, the largest free public directory of open source software and a vibrant web community (from GeekNet in October, 2010) and SpikeSource, a provider of software tools and services to automate application component identification and assess security vulnerability (November, 2010).
“Black Duck has seen rapid growth since its founding in 2002, with a significant surge in sales and revenue in the past 18 months,” said Tim Yeaton, CEO and President, Black Duck Software. “This growth has fueled our new investments and acquisitions, which have been undertaken to increase the value of Black Duck’s end-to-end offerings while supporting the adoption of free and open source software (FOSS) among enterprise IT and community developers. Operating as an independent business unit, Olliance Group will have the autonomy needed to give customers the objective advice they require as they begin planning for successful FOSS use in their applications and products.”
“We’re very excited to be able to add our brand, intellectual property, methodology, processes and open source strategy expertise to the leading enabler of open source software,” said Mr. Aitken. “Black Duck’s commitment to supporting our mission to provide independent advice while leveraging their resources is a win for Olliance, Black Duck and the industry.”
Olliance Group has conducted more than 450 strategy engagements with clients including Fortune 500 enterprises, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), start-up firms, venture capital groups and government entities.
“The combination of Olliance’s deep open source strategy experience and Black Duck’s automated open source code management and governance solutions provides customers with a compelling end-to-end value proposition,” said Marten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems and former CEO of MySQL AB.
